Chapter 23 – A Very Un-Merry Christmas

“This is totally stupid. Why are we even here?” Anna Wilkins folded her arms, putting her feet up on the wooden “meeting table” in the library conference room.

“Um, am I being compelled?” asked Tegan, looking confusedly at Anna. Anna rolled her eyes.

“Why is Tegan even here? She can’t help anything, she’s only human.”

“Would you guys shut up!” Alec ran in between Tegan and Anna.

“We’re here to talk about Kieyra. You guys are all her friends, right?” Alec looked around at Tegan, Jade, Anna, Ryan, Sam, and Katie, who were all sitting in uncomfortable library chairs, impatiently waiting for whatever Alec had asked them to come for.

“Anyways, we’re here to talk about Kieyra, and how she is stupidly planning to get herself killed.” Ryan and Sam looked at each other.

“Why are Sam and I here?” Ryan asked.

“Yeah, why are they here?” Jade asked.

“Because…well, I’m not sure. Why are you guys here? I never asked you to come.” Alec gave Ryan and Sam a puzzled look. They glanced at each other, whispered something, then shrugged.

“Unlike Tegan, they actually were compelled.” Anna said, glaring at her sister Katie.

“What? I got bored. I needed someone to carry my books.” Katie shrugged.

“Anyway, what are we supposed to do about Kieyra?”

“Oh! We should make an intervention group called ‘People Against Kieyra’s Stupid And Impulsive Decisions’! PAKSAID for short!” Tegan said excitedly, but when no one seemed too thrilled about it, she frowned and slid back into her chair.

“Does anyone have any better ideas?” Alec asked.

“Um, ignore her. She’s a teenage girl, they overreact all the time. I mean, my sister-”

“RYAN, SHUT UP ABOUT YOUR SISTER!” Everyone yelled. The librarian-who was being compelled by Alec-came in and shushed everyone.

“Be quiet or get out!” she whispered as loudly as she could without raising her voice to a normal speaking volume.

“I vote on getting out.” Anna said, raising her hand as if it would influence anyone’s decision.

“Okay, anyone who feels like leaving, leave now.” Alec said, then watched as Anna got up and left.

“Come, my pets.” Katie smiled innocently as she led Ryan and Sam out the door, compelling them to follow her. Tegan shrugged and left, following Anna, who immediately was annoyed by Tegan’s presence.

“Well, I’m staying.” Jade said.

“There’s no point. There’s not much we can do that we haven’t already done without them.” Alec sighed.

“Well, it was worth a try. I guess.”

                                                       ~~~~~~~~~~~

“Honey, it’ll be fine! Your dad’s not that scary, so stop being so melodramatic!” I fought my mom’s grasp as she pulled me towards my dad’s doorstep.  It was Christmas day, and I was being forced to visit my vampire hunter father.

“It’s not melodramatic if it’s my death sentence!” My mom rolled her eyes.

“He’s your father, even if he is crazy.”

“Mom, I’ll die in there! If you value my life at all whatsoever you will not make me go in that house!” my mom sighed.

“Okay, if your father is chasing you with a chainsaw, call me. If a satellite crashes into the house, call me. If your father starts talking about vampires in a literal sense, call me. If none of the aforementioned three things happen, you may NOT, under ANY circumstances, call me.”

“What if he accuses me of being a vampire, chases me with a chainsaw, and then a satellite falls and crushes the house?”

“Sweetie, it’ll be fine. Just go in there.” My mom rang the doorbell and ran for her car, saying a quick “I love you!” before she sped off in her car. My dad opened the door. He was a bit more muscular than I remembered, and he’d decided to grow a beard. He had dyed his hair a light brown and was sporting an ‘Edward Cullen hairdo’. He’d gone from wearing weird t-shirts with beer company logos on them and home-made jean shorts to wearing dark-colored sweaters and normal blue jeans. Despite the fact that he was the same fifty year old weirdo I’d known for thirteen years, he actually looked…kinda good. Before I could say anything about his new look, he stepped outside and pulled me into a rather tight hug.

“Um…Dad…I can’t breathe.” I said. He let go of me and smiled.

“I’ve missed you so much.” He walked in, and I watched as a light mist sprayed him from above his door. He was halfway down the hallway before he realized I was still standing there, unable to come in.

“Why are you still standing there?”

“Um…I can’t come in.” I said.

“Why not?” he asked, a little confused.

“It would be rude. I wasn’t invited.” I said a little too quickly.

“Oh, well you’re always welcome in our house, Kieyra.” It always annoyed me how he always seemed to say it was our house, yet I was rarely ever here and I had to be invited (no pun intended) to come if I wanted to. As I walked into the house, the mist sprayed me, but it burned my skin. I let out a short, high pitched scream as I ran in.

“What’s wrong?”

“Um, I saw a bee. A really big bee. What is that mist stuff, anyways?” 

“Vervain water. Keeps away the vampires.” That explained it.

“Mom said if you talked about vampires I could call her to take me home.” I told him, in hopes that he’d unrig any other vampire booby traps.

“Your mother always was a skeptic. I will prove her wrong one of these days, Kieyra, I will.”

“Good luck with that.” As we walked down the hallway, I could see that he was in no position to get rid of his traps. Not because of any belief that there really were vampires, but mostly because it would take too damn long. There were crosses laced with garlic hanging all over the walls, bottles that were labeled “Holy Water-Do Not Contaminate!”, and crossbows with wooden stakes in glass cases marked “IN CASE OF VAMPIRE APOCALYPSE BREAK GLASS”.

“What’s with all the weapons, food, and religious paraphernalia?” I asked.

“Vampire hunting tools.”

“Um… okay then. You know I could call mom at any time now, right?” my dad rolled his eyes and continued down the hallway.

“Do you want anything to eat? Anything to drink? I have blueberries? You like blueberries, right?”

“I’m not that hungry.” I said, which was only half true. I wasn’t exactly hungry so much as thirsty, and for what I was thirsty for I wasn’t exactly going to say in front of anyone, especially my psycho vampire hunting dad.

“Okay, then what do you want to do? Open your Christmas present?”

“Um, sure.” He went upstairs and came back a few minutes later with a small red and green box with a gold bow on top.

“Merry Christmas, Kieyra.” He said, handing me the box. Inside was a pretty little silver heart-shaped necklace.

“Thanks dad, I love it.” When I went to pick it up, it burned my skin and I dropped it back into the box. Vervain, of course.

“What’s the matter? I thought you liked it? Why don’t you put it on?”

“Um…it doesn’t go with my outfit.” I said, even though I knew that a necklace like that would go with any outfit in the world. Fortunately, my dad knew nothing about fashion and went along with it. Suddenly, his watch beeped and he looked at it in confusion.

“What is it?”

“According to my vampire-detecting device, there’s a vampire on my property.” I had to admit, the word “vampire-protecting device” sounded pretty dorky.

“Um, maybe it’s broken? Is it made in China? You’re not supposed to use things made in China. Wait-maybe that’s only food. Never mind.”

“Hold on, I can check. I have a vampire-torture device that I can set off so the vampire will leave, if there even is one.” My dad walked over to a small box on the wall and pressed a button, which made a noise at such a high frequency that it was extremely painful to listen to. I fell to the ground screaming, covering my ears. It felt like my brain was exploding.

“Turn it off!” I screamed.

“What’s going on?”

“Just turn it off!” he pressed the button again, and finally I could relax.

“Kieyra. What are you?”

“Dad, I’m not a vampire, I swear!” I lied.

“Oh yeah? Prove it. Walk in the sun.”

“Okay.” I walked into the sunlight streaming through the French doors, spun around a little bit and walked back to him.

“I told you so.” I smirked, walking towards the stairs.

“Wait-take off your bracelet.” I walked back to him, took off the bracelet Katherine gave me, and started towards the doors again, but my dad stopped me.

“And your ring.” I gulped.

“M-my ring?”

“Yes, Kieyra, that big ugly ring you’re wearing. Take it off, put it down, and walk into the sunlight.”

“Dad, you can’t be serious. I’m your daughter. This is ridiculous.”

“Do it now!”

“Um, okay.” I slowly took off the ring that Lukas, Damien’s minion, had given me for the very first time since I put it on three months ago. Then I walked into the sunlight, crying out in agonizing pain as the sun burned my skin. I ran out of the sunlight, snatched my ring and bracelet from the coffee table, and ran into the shadows. My father walked towards me, a look of pure hatred in his hazel eyes.

“Dad, please. Don’t. Please don’t. I’m sorry. Please don’t hurt me.”

“You’re a monster. Monsters need to be destroyed.”

“I’m your daughter. Please.”

“You’re not my daughter. Not anymore.” He smashed one of the glass cases and took out a wooden stake.

“No, Dad, please!” I’m pretty sure that would have been an appropriate time to call my mom, if only I hadn’t left my cell phone on the coffee table… Then I remembered my power, what I could do. I sent the stake in his hand flying across the room, shattering the glass on one of the windows.

“Vampires have special powers? I’ll have to write that one down.” I heard the front door slam. My dad spun around.

“Who’s there?” he called, but there was no answer. Suddenly, I saw a tall figure run past me at lightning speed.

“I DEMAND TO KNOW WHO IS IN THIS HOUSE!” my dad yelled angrily. The figure ran towards my dad and sent him flying across the living room. Then it came after me. I screamed, closing my eyes so tightly that it actually hurt. Then I heard a high pitched, girly laugh.

“You have honestly no idea how pathetic you sounded just then.” I opened my eyes. Katherine was standing over me, her long brown curls tickling my face. 

“Katherine! You hit my dad!” she shrugged, helping me up off of the ground.

“Who are you?’ my dad asked, struggling to get up.

“So this is your vampire hunting father. You know, I imagined he’d be a little less…obvious.” My dad got up, picked up his stake again, and started after us.

“You really are persistent, aren’t you?” Katherine skipped over to my dad gracefully and slapped him in the face so hard he fell to the floor, unconscious.